The Witcher - EE Review @ Videogamer.com

October 8th, 2008, 03:04

The official site for The Witcher has a new review link posted for the recently released Enhanced Edition. Videogamer.com gives the game a 9/10 and has this to say:

So, how much difference do all these changes make, you might ask?…Obviously the most noticeable difference is due to the script. With five thousand lines of restored dialogue and a re-recorded voiceover (which is better directed than the original version), the game world now feels richer and more vibrant and believable than before. One of the things we liked best in the original game was the way the world was presented in shades of grey, with there being no obvious right or wrong moral choices. This aspect is even more apparent and better detailed with the revised script. Some characters that were merely dislikeable first time around are now utterly repellent, as are the decisions they ask you to make.

Yeah. English voices in the original version being bad was just a myth created by the usual internet ways. Most of the original voices were consistent, characterful and diverse. A lot of voices in the enhanced edition lack all three characteristics.
For some reason, reviewers consistently suck at reviewing The Witcher appropriately, enhanced or not.
By far the best review of The Witcher is the one on this very site .

So I wonder whether there's a way to prevent the EE to overwrite the original voices ? Saving them in a different folder before letting them be overwritten ?

This whole voices thing reminds me more and more of the Deathknight's voice in Beyond Divinity.

Everyone said that the first voice was bad.

Larian changed that and THEN everyone said it was even worse ! E$ven a few pro changing thevoice in the first place admitted that in the forum !

But it got never changed.

The German players never had this problem: There was no spoken text at all.

— “ Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius – and a lot of courage – to move in the opposite direction.“ (E.F.Schumacher, Economist, Source)

Yes, but then you would have a voiceover that didn't match the new, extended text. Personally, I think this is a small overreaction - the VO in the original was better in some places but this is still better than the majority of CRPGs and combined with the new script, is a massive improvement overall.

Oh don't get me wrong, I wouldn't trade the EE version for the old one again.. no way! But seriously?… Have you listened to the retarded brickmaker in the swamp? The first version was fantastic. He was not only funny, but truly sounded authentic. You had a mixture of pity and impatience as you listened to him stutter and cluck, just like you would if it were real life. It was one of the little gems that added a little more shine to an already glossy game.

But now?! The retarded brickmaker sounds more like a retarded voice actor trying to sound like a retarded brickmaker and failing miserably. Absolutely a HUGE backwards step with that particular example. Just ruined that whole scene. What a shame. Still the best RPG ever though!

— ..& so they take the fiction all out of the Jabberwock & I recognize & accept him as a fact. - Mark Twain, May 30, 1880